Short Description

Author

Related Articles

Other Properties

Return to

Your Golem and You Volume 3
The second kind of known golems are necromantic golems. Some scientists of high renown question the relation between the two groups of golems but certain similarities hint at a common source.
To create a necromantic golem a special vessel is created and prepared. Then a spirit is forced into the body. In a third step the body is animated and becomes some sort of prison for the bound spirit.
The similarity lies in the preparation of the body. The following ritual that forces a spirit into the body shows a striking resemblance of the ritual to create a consciousness in elemental golems. While in an elemental golem the created consciousness is by nature bound to the condensed core, the consciousness of a necromantic golem is the spirit that is bound into the golem.
The form of the necromantic golem is almost neglectable as the bound spirit is usually that of an humanoid who would have difficulties operating a body that has other physical features than a humanoid. The spirits bound by the ritual are usually old and drained that have lost conciousness long ago. Those souls are weak but connect best with the enchantments of the prepared body. Even if some malignant spirit is drawn into the construct, it usually becomes not the core consciousness but technically possesses the original weak soul instead.
Sometimes the creator of a necromantic golem manages to use the head or the brain of a deceased as focus to force the original soul to become the core of the necromantic golem. As this is already possible shortly after death, the anguish that originates from the reconnection with the world of the living causes severe damage to the sentience of the creature and leaves the construct usually mad and demented. Though the whole practice of necromancy is questionable at best, the latter experiments are only frivolous flirts with disaster and are doomed to failure.
Even if the creation of necromantic golems can also be seen as another form of raising undead, it has become a science of its own. Skilful necromancers created fascinating variants of the basic ritual to bind animal spirits into corpses that can come in different shapes and sizes, and some even managed to create golems out of single body parts like hands.
The secrecy and prohibitions from which necromancy suffers led to an imbalance between a very small number of competent scientists and a large amount of self-styled necromancers that mess around without the necessary skills. They experiment with incomplete rituals and poor material substitutes resulting in much trouble and many accidents. Even if they live long enough to move further in theirs studies, those self-styled necromancers show neither knowledge nor respect to the roots of necromancy.